bru888 wrote:I have to admit, despite my initial pessimism, this tool is amazing. The trouble was, I did not want to like it because if I did, then I would become dependent upon it. That in turn would depend upon how long the designer had the interest and stamina to maintain it.

This has nothing to do with the fellow himself who, while I greatly admire his handiwork, I don't know from a hole in the ground. It's just that in this fuzzy world of online gaming, things are rather ephemeral, you know? When I have doubts about the staying power of the game designers themselves, how can I trust that of a forum member?

Heh, it's a fault of mine in terms of I.T. and the internet. When I really like something, I look for permanence and guarantee. Neither are ever forthcoming.

I'm glad you like it. If you have new feature requests, don't hesitate to post them and I'll see what I can do

I started using the tool myself as I just started a Japanese grand campaign play-through (Morning sun + Rising sun). My RP management has improved significantly because I can manage unit purchases and upgrades much better. I'm also using engineers and flame tanks much more and with success. I call them the "Fire and Fury" battalion.

- added Rapid deployment trait to all artillery units that can fire after moving

I'm keeping the primary guns units as I think they should be available to be consistent with other switch units. I'm ok with adding a filter that would hide switch units by default, though. I also think we could use a trait filter as well.

Author and maintainer of Unit Navigator Tool for Order Of Battle (http://mfendek.byethost16.com/)

So I use this for real for the first time (reluctantly awestruck) and it helps to solve a conundrum. Why is a kayak rated with MP of 6 (unrealistically on the face of it) slower than a gunboat with MP of 3? It turns out that there are terrain modifiers which your tool will help us understand. But I do have a question.

Here is the kayak, a Special Boat Service unit that I am using in my scenario (click the image to see the bottom). It shows that, indeed, where I have it being launched in deep water, it can only move 2 hexes, which is what I see in trial runs and which is what I want, fortunately:

Capture532.jpg (305.89 KiB) Viewed 2666 times

Now, my question is, what do you mean by "deep_water, (dry) terrain" and "spotting through X tiles"? No doubt I am asking you to explain a game concept rather than an aspect of your tool which is merely reflecting that concept, but if you would be so kind, I would appreciate it.

Here is the gunboat, by comparison (click the image to see the bottom):

Capture535.jpg (282.76 KiB) Viewed 2666 times

The "3-1" is, I assume, reflective that a gunboat normally moves 3 hexes in deep water, which again is what I am seeing, but "spotting through" adds another hex to that? If so, why not just leave it as "3|4"?

Each tile exists in 3 variants (or climates) currently and that is dry, wet and winter. These terrain types are indicated by different border colour of the terrain boxes. Dry - black, wet - brown and winter - blue. The picture below shows two terrain types of different climates.

bru888 wrote:spotting through X tiles"

Spotting mechanic is quite tricky to explain and is actually not covered in the game at all. It is somewhat similar to the mechanic of the movement. A unit has spotting points (number show in the "googles" icon). Let's assume our test unit has 4 spotting points. Each terrain type has different "spotting cost". For example "open" terrain has spotting cost of 2. This means our unit can spot through 2 open tiles (4 divided by 2 and then applied the floor (discard decimal part)). This means that if we place the test unit on a map full of "open" terrain tiles it will see all tiles that are within radius of 3. Why 3 and not 2? This is because seeing through 2 tiles means that you can actually see the third tile as well. Note that as a consequence a unit that is unable to see through any tiles will still see the adjacent tiles.

Now here comes the complicated part. Unlike movement where unit moving on tiles is a discrete mechanic (unit either moves through a tile or not), spotting can actually go through tiles partially. This is because we are trying to do something like a circle, but we have to work with tiles. This mechanic comes into play if you have tiles of different spotting costs.

Let's take a forest tiles for example. This one has a spotting cost of 5. Our test unit has 4 as total number of spotting points. This means it won't be able to see through the forest. What happens if there are multiple tiles that overlap our spotting path? In this case the spotting cost of a tile that takes up more that 50% is chosen. If the path is split between two tiles evenly, the tile with higher spotting cost is chosen. Picture below explains this situation:

bru888 wrote:The "3-1" is, I assume, reflective that a gunboat normally moves 3 hexes in deep water, which again is what I am seeing, but "spotting through" adds another hex to that? If so, why not just leave it as "3|4"?

Movement and spotting mechanics are completely independent and are displayed together only because both are terrain type specific. Actually, the + and - modifiers are something completely different. If you see a number highlighted in RED and followed by a negative number, i.e. "3 - 1" this means that you are in comparison mode and the attribute that the number 3 represents is 1 less compared to the unit you chose when you activated comparison mode. If you see a number highlighted in GREEN and followed by a positive number, i.e. "3 + 1" this means that you are in comparison mode and the attribute that the number 3 represents is 1 more compared to the unit you chose when you activated comparison mode. Note that there are attributes were less is better so they have their colours reversed (i.e. cost).

How does the comparison mode work? This mode is disabled by default, i.e. you see no modifiers. Each unit has an orange "compare" button in its box. If you click it, this unit will be marked and comparison mode will be activated. This means all units that are displayed on the screen will show comparison modifiers relative to the marked unit including terrain. Note that the marked unit doesn't need to be on the screen for you to keep comparing. The marked unit is displayed on the top part of the screen near the filters bar. If you mark another unit, this will just replace the marked unit from before. If you want to exit comparison mode press the "clear compare" button in the filter bar.

If you have any more question, feel free to ask. I'll be happy to help.

Author and maintainer of Unit Navigator Tool for Order Of Battle (http://mfendek.byethost16.com/)

GabeKnight wrote:Nice. And thanks again. Using it more and more as of late. I didn't even know that there were such things as differet torpedo attack stats before.

The complete lack of torpedo comparisons in game is one of my major complaints. After using my tool I have realised that I have been using suboptimal unit choices in the Rising Sun campaign when it comes to destroyers. DD Shimakaze is the best destroyer and it's torpedo attacks are super powerful. Also note that later unit upgrades can actually be "downgrades". Later versions of some units are weaker, but can be cheaper.

Author and maintainer of Unit Navigator Tool for Order Of Battle (http://mfendek.byethost16.com/)

@Mojko ok thanks. when I go to that tool page, all it does is spin(like it is trying to load). maybe i'm not waiting long enough. will figure it out. anyways....I also hate myself for waiting so long to try this game, I AM HOOKED!!!! thanks to all of you involved with its creation. back to the tool page in a bit....invading Yugoslavia....having great fun.

dks wrote:@Mojko ok thanks. when I go to that tool page, all it does is spin(like it is trying to load). maybe i'm not waiting long enough. will figure it out. anyways....I also hate myself for waiting so long to try this game, I AM HOOKED!!!! thanks to all of you involved with its creation. back to the tool page in a bit....invading Yugoslavia....having great fun.

The initial page load can be slow, but once it's loaded ay subsequent page loads should be very fast. What internet connection do you have? What web browser / OS you use?

Glad to hear that you're enjoying the game

Author and maintainer of Unit Navigator Tool for Order Of Battle (http://mfendek.byethost16.com/)

@Mojko satellite download speed 40-50(I live way out in the boonies) use edge and tried chrome, same results, speed and trying to load tool. win10 build 1709 64 bit. tried this morning my time 4:am USA and waited for a few minutes same results. I do not have the steam version of the game. I purchase all games with boxed dvd/free down. use the pc version. using the 5.2.9 64 bit update of game.

dks wrote:@Mojko satellite download speed 40-50(I live way out in the boonies) use edge and tried chrome, same results, speed and trying to load tool. win10 build 1709 64 bit. tried this morning my time 4:am USA and waited for a few minutes same results. I do not have the steam version of the game. I purchase all games with boxed dvd/free down. use the pc version. using the 5.2.9 64 bit update of game.

Can you please provide me with some screenshots of the screen you see on the tool page? Ideally use Chrome and also include screenshots of the console and network tabs in the developer tools.

Author and maintainer of Unit Navigator Tool for Order Of Battle (http://mfendek.byethost16.com/)